Early in 1944, nine men landed on a tiny, barren island off the west coast of the Graham Land Peninsula in Antarctica. Armed with only a small assortment of rifles and pistols and with an obselete 12 pounder mounted on the bows of their decrepit supply vessel, officially, their purpose was to prevent German U-boats and surface raiders from using Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic harbours for refuelling and resupply. Unofficially, they were tasked with reasserting British territorial rights in the face of increasingly confident incursions by neutral argentina. This two year expedition, code-named Operation Tabarin, was the precursor to the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, FIDS. It marked the beginning of Britain's permanent presence on the Antarctic continent and the commencement of a complex programme of scientific research and geographic exploration which continues to this day.